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Politics : Should God be replaced? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Greg or e who wrote (9375)	1/12/2002 3:36:40 PM
From: Bill Fischofer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 28931

Values are statements of Who We Are. Morals are the values ascribed to an external (divine) authority. As such, values are statements of being while morals are standards of behavior. Values state how things are. Morals state how we imagine things should be. The two can overlap but usually this is partial. When they are sufficiently aligned we call the result sanctity. When they are sufficiently distanced we call the result hypocrisy. The search for absolute standards by which to measure things is an ancient one and one of the root historical friction points between science and religion is that as science has advanced it has had to successively abandon them. The earth moves, as do the "fixed stars". The notion of absolute space or time disappears. Matter itself becomes fuzzy. Man is a primate and has evolved. Each of these changes in thought has resulted in great distress on the part of those who believe in absolutes and felt as if the foundations of the world were being taken out from under them by such changes. But life cannot be reduced to a measurement problem. The notion that morality can be based on measurement and calculation is a theological remnant of an Aristotelian world view that saw its zenith in Newtonian mechanics and has been in decline since. Perhaps that's why Jesus gives only two "commandments" in Matthew 22:37-39: "And He said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself." If love is the only "commandment" then what is there to measure? Yes, I was raised Roman Catholic and am very familiar with Christianity but I don't call myself Monist because I view the All as an eternal process of creation, not reduction. The very act of trying to put labels on reality is an attempt to circumscribe it and that is an exercise that is bound to end in frustration because love admits no boundaries whatsoever. In the instant we think of one we observe how love lightly skips across it. Feel free to continue the dialog at whatever pace you wish.